World-leading Climate Photographer to capture images of North Devon

Gideon Mendel is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading contemporary photographers. He has documented conflict, change and social issues on a global scale since the early 1980s, earning him international acclaim.

Since 2007, Mendel has been working on ‘Drowning World’, a major project about flooding and his response to the climate crisis. Documenting a variety of flooded locations internationally, his images have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world.

In September 2023, Gideon Mendel will visit North Devon to create portraits of young people on location in areas at most risk of being below the annual flood level in 2050.

“The Beaford Archive has always documented today’s North Devon for the future,” said Mark Wallace, Beaford’s director, “but we’re living in a crucial time for the future of young North Devonians – and it’s important for their voice to be heard now.”

Climate Central, an independent organisation of leading scientists and journalists who research climate change and its impact on the public, has found that large expanses of inhabited land in Devon are expected to be below the level of average flooding by 2050. In coastal North Devon, there are several areas potentially affected on either side of the Taw and Torridge River estuaries, with Barnstaple, Braunton, Fremington, Yelland, Westward Ho!, Appledore and Bideford being the worst affected.

The North Devon portraits created by Gideon will feature local young people holding handmade placards with messages of warning and hope. They will be exhibited alongside images from his ‘Drowning World’ series as part of an international Climate Festival in Barnstaple’s newly refurbished Pannier Market in November.

The exhibition will open on Friday 3rd November 2023, UNESCO’s International Day for Biosphere Reserves, and will run through until Friday 17thNovember.

For more information, including a link to Climate Central’s Coastal Risk Screening Report and interactive map, visit beaford.org/signofourtimes